RealVR TV :: VR NEWShttp://realvrtv.com/blogThe Oculus Quest Is the Nintendo Switch of VRhttp://realvrtv.com/blog/121-The-Oculus-Quest-Is-the-Nintendo-Switch-of-VR.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTDespite billions of dollars in investment, a healthy number of competitors, and a wide range of options, virtual reality still has yet to catch on. It’s tough to pinpoint exactly why, but there area few obvious stumbling blocks. These headsets require a lot of financial investment from the user, and physical real estate too. The software selection is lackluster. It often feels like an expensive parlor trick. The most well-known VR company, Oculus, is owned by Facebook (boooooo!!).
But the sluggish movement on the VR front hasn’t stopped Oculus from plugging ahead. On Tuesday, the company released a new hardware iteration called the Oculus Quest, and it is the first VR headset I’ve used that I think I can unequivocally recommend without any major caveats.
The Quest uses “inside-out tracking,” which means that the sensors which track the user’s movement and position in physical space are all included on the headset. On the Oculus Rift, its first headset, the user had to set up two external sensors in order to track movement (an updated version with tracking similar to the Quest’s, the Rift S, is out this week as well).
Using the Quest makes the first-generation Rift seem like a prototype, like when you go to a museum and see an early PC prototype and it’s like six computer chips duct-taped to a piece of wood. For those unfamiliar, this is how the Rift’s setup process works: You need the headset itself and the external sensors all hooked up to a PC powerful enough to run the VR software. Altogether, a PC and the headset together will cost you north of a thousand dollars. You also need 36 square feet of floor space to move around in. After clearing out the floor space, setting up the tangled nest of cables, and calibrating the sensors (which need the user’s height, so God help you if you were planning to take turns with someone of a different stature), you’re read to play a slate of VR games or “experiences” that I’d describe as … fine.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Rift’s biggest problem was that the investment required in money, time, and physical real estate put it out of bounds for almost anyone but the most hard-core VR acolytes. The headset, combined with the touch controllers that translate hand gestures into VR as well, provided an immersive experience. But the software selection was limited and, in almost every case, it failed to justify the hassle.
Get unlimited access to Intelligencer and everything else New York.
LEARN MORE »
Compare all of that with how I set up the Oculus Quest in my small Brooklyn apartment this afternoon: I pushed a chair out of the way and strapped on the headset. No PC, no wires, minimal calibrating. All of the hardware needed to track the user and run games is housed inside the headset. From there, it was easy to jump in and start messing around with VR hits like Beat Saber, in which the user slashes laser swords in time to thumping electronic music. It is, as far as I’m concerned, the best VR game out there — and now it’s in a completely portable form.
The Oculus Quest feels analogous to the Nintendo Switch. It’s not the most powerful VR setup, but it more than gets the job done, and what it lacks in horsepower it makes up for in convenience. The Quest feels like something you could throw in a backpack and bring to a friend’s place. Unlike the Oculus Go, the least-capable model in the company’s line, the Quest isn’t much of a compromise. It splits the difference well between power and convenience.
Finding that balance matters for a few reasons. If VR is easy to set up and use, it’s easier for people to demonstrate to their friends, and make what was once a hypothetical into something accessible. The Quest lowers the VR entry barrier significantly, but not so low that it can’t hang with the Rift, its more powerful sibling. And if more people start using VR, maybe more developers start messing with it and coming up with novel applications.
Inversely, because the Quest makes VR so easy to jump into and gets rid of the setup hassle, it makes the current software selection look better in comparison. Less-than-exemplary software doesn’t feel like a complete waste of time when you no longer have to snake wires and rearrange your entire apartment to experience it. I guess the best thing about the Quest is that it has the possibility of making VR feel casual without feeling insubstantial. As of right now, it’s the ideal configuration. If even that doesn’t move the needle on VR, maybe it’s time to worry.
An exhaustive look at Oculus Quest’s first day of great, wireless VR softwarehttp://realvrtv.com/blog/120-An-exhaustive-look-at-Oculus-Quest-s-first-day-of-great-wireless-VR-software.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTThree weeks ago, I had many positive things to say in my Oculus Quest VR system review. It&#39;s wireless, it&#39;s simple to use, and it runs on the bleeding edge of just powerful enough for engrossing "six degrees of freedom" (6DOF) virtual reality.
Thankfully, that review was driven by a variety of pre-release software—which means we didn&#39;t have to guess how the hardware&#39;s strengths and weaknesses bore out for retail games and apps. But in the time since that article went live, Oculus has dumped even more software into our devices.
FURTHER READING
Oculus Quest review: 2019’s best new gaming system is wireless, affordable VR
So much software, in fact, that we decided to do something we haven&#39;t done in a while: a launch-day software guide for a game platform&#39;s launch. The last platform to get such an Ars treatment, coincidentally, was Sony&#39;s PlayStation VR in 2016—but that was a "buy, try, avoid" breakdown of its 14 exclusive games.
What a difference three years makes for the VR ecosystem. Oculus Quest has come out swinging with 14 launch titles that we&#39;d slap a "buy" or "strong try" tag onto. Admittedly, most of these are ports of previous VR success stories, but for a lot of people who&#39;ve waited for a "good enough" VR platform to invest in, there&#39;s a strong possibility they&#39;ve never gone hands- and eyes-on with these titles.
Thus, let&#39;s dive in with an eye on the Quest hardware difference—and how its smartphone SoC affects visual downgrades or VR content compromises. Yes, this is a long list, but we hope that its breadth—including productivity apps and some ambitious honorable-mention titles—is indicative of the heavyweight aspirations Oculus already seems to have for this one-day-old, $400 system.
Buy: Two types of sabers, quality VR art tools, Quest sports
Beat Saber ($30, free demo option, no cross-buy support)
We&#39;ve been fans of Beat Saber since its 2018 launch, and Oculus Quest has given us a great excuse to reaffirm our love of the rhythm-action game. In March, Oculus let us drool over a near-final build on Quest. And in April, Oculus shipped us retail Quest hardware with Beat Saber queued up for immediate installation.
For the uninitiated, I like to describe Beat Saber (our #4 pick for 2018&#39;s Games of the Year) as a twist on Dance Dance Revolution, mapped to virtual reality&#39;s strengths and weaknesses. Like in DDR, Beat Saber players must hit directional buttons to the beat of music. Unlike DDR, Beat Saber&#39;s world shows a grid of upcoming "notes" whooshing in your direction as if they&#39;re real. Also, unlike the foot-centric DDR, you have to strike these notes with your hands—or, technically, with virtual light sabers.
CROSS-BUY?
FYI: If you&#39;ve already purchased a game&#39;s Oculus Rift version, cross-buy support means you automatically own its Quest version. However, this does not apply if you own the game in question on SteamVR or other marketplaces, and not every game offers this cross-Oculus deal, either.
Beat Saber is a funky exception. Even if you own its Rift version, you must re-buy the $30 base version on Quest. However, if you&#39;ve already bought the game&#39;s paid DLC packs on Rift (not SteamVR), those do transfer to Quest. Yeah, I don&#39;t get it, either.
In short: kill the musical notes, Obi-Wan style.
The game is simple to understand, exhilarating to play, and scales incredibly well to Oculus Quest. Pitch-black worlds explode with neon atmosphere, showing off the system&#39;s gorgeous OLED panel. Geometry is clear yet simple, so that the frame rate always runs at a smooth, 72fps max. And Quest&#39;s built-in tracking system keeps up with wild hand motions, as proven by nearly a full month of pickup Beat Saber sessions.
The toughest selling point on this version is its limited song selection. The game&#39;s PC version benefits from a fan-driven slew of custom, free-to-download songs, but nothing like that exists on Quest beyond paid DLC. (We&#39;ll have to see if passionate fans take advantage of Quest&#39;s Android side-loading support to come up with a solution.) Personally, I&#39;m a fan of the official soundtrack&#39;s cheery, high-tempo techno, but if you come to this expecting the song variety of series like DDR or Rock Band, you&#39;re singing the wrong tune.
HTC VIVE and SYNNEX Corporation Deliver Leading Virtual Reality Offering for Enterprise Customershttp://realvrtv.com/blog/119-HTC-VIVE-and-SYNNEX-Corporation-Deliver-Leading-Virtual-Reality-Offering-for-Enterprise-Customers.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTSEATTLE, May 23, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- HTC VIVE®, a leader in premium virtual reality, today announced an agreement with SYNNEX Corporation (SNX), a leading business process services company, to deliver its virtual reality (VR) products to enterprise resellers. Through the agreement, resellers have access to HTC VIVE&#39;s VR offerings designed for markets including architecture, construction and engineering; product design; healthcare and medicine; and education. The offering is specifically available through SYNNEX&#39; New Age Electronics division.
"We&#39;re continuing to see the demand for enterprise VR increase, as the technology rapidly shapes the way companies operate and communicate with their employees and customers," said Daniel O&#39;Brien, General Manager Americas, HTC VIVE. "We&#39;re thrilled to work with SYNNEX to make virtual reality solutions available to both commercial sellers and their customers looking to take advantage of this technology."
HTC VIVE products available through SYNNEX Corporation include:
VIVE Focus Plus, the newest premium VR standalone headset for enterprise customers. The new Focus Plus brings users more immersive experiences, greater comfort for extended VR sessions, and new fresnel lenses to enhance visual clearness.
VIVE Pro VR System and the VIVE Pro Starter Kit, the market&#39;s most immersive PC-powered VR hardware built for professional users. The VIVE Pro has superior resolution, high performance headphones, and was strategically built with enhanced ergonomics to ensure long-wear comfort.
VIVE Pro Eye, a VR headset built with integrated eye tracking, giving users new levels of accessibility, including gaze-oriented menu navigation. Additionally, it allows businesses and developers to gather more data about their training environments and offer product design unprecedented levels of feedback.
According to Fred Towns, President of SYNNEX&#39; New Age Electronics division, "As the virtual reality category evolves to include more applications for a range of business environments, it&#39;s important that we equip resellers with a leading enterprise offering like HTC VIVE. We&#39;re excited to be part of the evolution where business users can immerse themselves into new digital worlds to learn, manage projects and solve problems from wherever they are."
To learn more about HTC VIVE through SYNNEX Corporation, contact naesales@synnex.com.
About HTC VIVE
VIVE is a first-of-its-kind virtual reality platform, built and optimized for premium VR and true-to-life interactions. Built on the SteamVR and WAVE platforms, VIVE delivers on the promise of VR with game-changing technology and best-in-class content. VIVE has created the strongest ecosystem for VR hardware and software, bringing VR to consumers, developers and enterprises alike. The VIVE ecosystem is built around the best VR hardware in market, supported by VIVE X, a $100 million accelerator for VR and related technology start-ups, VIVEPORT, a global platform and app store with the world&#39;s first VR subscription model that operates in more than 60 countries, and VIVE Studios, its VR content development and publishing initiative.
About New Age Electronics
New Age Electronics, a division of SYNNEX Corporation (SNX), is a sales and supply chain solutions innovator that provides consumer technology (CT) manufacturers with a broad offering of logistics, distribution and remanufactured services. Extensive experience in the CT industry and a customer-centric approach has made New Age Electronics the provider of choice. New Age Electronics distinguishes itself with efficient operations and relentless focus on customer satisfaction. Founded in 1988, New Age Electronics is headquartered in Carson, California. For more information about New Age Electronics, call (310) 549-0000, toll-free (888) 234-0300 or visit the company&#39;s website at www.synnex.com/nae.
About SYNNEX Corporation
SYNNEX Corporation (SNX) is a Fortune 200 corporation and a leading business process services company, providing a comprehensive range of distribution, logistics and integration services for the technology industry and providing outsourced services focused on customer engagement to a broad range of enterprises. SYNNEX distributes a broad range of information technology systems and products, and also provides systems design and integration solutions. Concentrix, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SYNNEX Corporation, offers a portfolio of strategic solutions and end-to-end business services focused on customer engagement, process optimization, technology innovation, front and back-office automation and business transformation to clients in ten identified industry verticals. Founded in 1980, SYNNEX Corporation operates in numerous countries throughout North and South America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Additional information about SYNNEX may be found online at www.synnex.com.
Coming to a VR device near you: interacting with your favorite superheroeshttp://realvrtv.com/blog/118-Coming-to-a-VR-device-near-you-interacting-with-your-favorite-superheroes.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTFacebook&#39;s latest virtual reality (VR) device, called Oculus Quest, gets good reviews. It offers "six degrees of freedom" of movement, which pushes the boundaries of user interaction with content. There are no messy wires. Apps download straight to the device and WiFi connects users for multiplayer games.
But there&#39;s a glaring flaw. Comic book superheroes are notably scarce in VR content, which seems odd because comic book fans are super-passionate about their make-believe worlds. That makes comic books one of the original VR formats. As anyone who&#39;s been to Comic-Con knows, fans love "interacting" with their superheroes.
The Oculus content line up isn&#39;t the only evidence that superheroes aren&#39;t yet at home in VR. Panel discussions on "comics in the digital age" at the New York Comic Con focus on web-based platforms supporting the traditional panel format, like Line WebToon, which feels like the stone age at this point.
Experts cite two reasons why comic book heroes can&#39;t yet find a home in the brave new world of VR.
1. Game developers need coding skills, and those skills readily carry over into VR, says Chris Pruett, who works with third-party content developers as the director of the ecosystem at Oculus. Comic book creators, in contrast, are artists and writers, not coders.
2. The big entertainment companies that own the most successful comic book content don&#39;t want to give up control of characters and storylines, says Jaron Lanier, author of Dawn of the New Everything: Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality.
Early on, VR pioneers like Lanier talked with Hollywood studios about a potential marriage. The studios loved the idea of putting viewers in a 3D landscape. "I said that is not really the spirit of VR. In the spirit of VR you become the character," Lanier said. Hollywood&#39;s response: Forget about it because that takes the story away from us.
Read: If you like ‘Game of Thrones,’ you’ll love this stock
Signs of progress
Still, this mindset is slowly evolving — to the delight of comic book fans. Progress should continue thanks to Oculus and private companies paving new ground. Consider the following three trends — which likely will ultimately support revenue growth at entertainment content and platform companies ranging from Walt Disney Co. DIS, -1.16% and Sony SNE, -4.30% , to Facebook FB, -2.87% , NetflixNFLX, -2.96% , Amazon.com AMZN, -2.71% , Apple AAPL, -1.84% , and AT&TT, -0.85% .
1. Marvel Entertainment, a division of Disney, collaborates with Oculus to offer "playable characters" through a lineup called Marvel Powers United VR. Multiplayer games lets users "turn into" superheroes to carry out missions, battling Marvel villains along the way. Superheroes also are leaping into video games. A Sony video game called “Marvel’s Spider-Man” is one of the company’s most successful titles. It has helped power profits at Sony&#39;s videogame business, picking up where hardware left off.
2. Indie comic book creators should see Oculus as a playground. The device ships with a browser that can play third-party content rendered in a 3D VR format, says Pruett. Browsers aren&#39;t built for speed, so the VR quality is not as good as with "native apps" written to run directly on the Oculus device.
But indie comic book creators also can go the native code route, Pruett says. A thriving indie developer community of smallish teams of a half a dozen people or less produce some of the most successful VR games, without financial backing from big studios. The popular “Beat Saber” and “Superhot” VR games are examples. Small indie teams "are the authors of some of the best content we have today," Pruett says.
There&#39;s no reason to think this can&#39;t happen for comic books, in time. "When we take a media from traditional sources into VR we have to reinvent how it works. We understand how video games translate into VR. We don&#39;t understand it for comic books yet," says Pruett. Artists and developers are still feeling their way, but there&#39;s probably someone in a garage somewhere right now who is inventing the new model.
3. Upstart private companies are developing technology to help comic book artists pave the way and make some money in the process. For example, Madefire — which presented at New York Comic Con last year — offers a basic "VR" platform for comic book artists to develop ideas, in a format called "motion books." Madefire CEO and co-founder Ben Wolstenholme likens the final product to walking through a popup book.
Madefire tools are free, but if creators charge money for content they split it with Madefire. The company has tens of thousands of books on its platform, including content from Marvel and DC Comics, a division of AT&T. Dave Gibbons, an artist who worked on popular Watchmen and Superman books, explains what Madefire does in this short video. .
Madefire collaborates with a private VR headset maker called Magic Leap, to put content into Magic Leap&#39;s augmented reality (AR) format. AR creates the illusion of 3D images projected into the real world that users can interact with. Think holograms. The Magic Leap One device is similar to Microsoft&#39;s MSFT, -1.68% HoloLens headset.
Investing angles
Unless you are a big investor like Alphabet GOOGL, -1.51% , which has pumped money into Magic Leap, it is difficult to invest in private companies like Madefire or Magic Leap. But they&#39;re worth watching, because they might go public some day.
Like Oculus, these companies serve as content farms for entertainment giants hungry for content, as their business model shifts towards the "over the top" subscription revenue streams, said Madefire’s Wolstenholme. "Comics are a source of new intellectual property (IP), franchises and storytelling material," he added. "Public companies are interested in comics because they are building subscription services that need new IP."
Marvel, for example, is pulling its content from Netflix to put on the Disney+ platform. That means Netflix will have a big hole to fill. Amazon has a similar need on its video platform and Apple is a player in the content game. To the extent that Oculus and companies like Madefire welcome superheroes into the world of VR, they&#39;ll play a role filling the content gap at these giants. Said Wolstenholme: "We believe this era is all about new and original IP, and we are built to create that." .
Microsoft turns SharePoint into the simplest VR creation tool yethttp://realvrtv.com/blog/117-Microsoft-turns-SharePoint-into-the-simplest-VR-creation-tool-yet.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PST
Microsoft is sticking with its pragmatic approach to VR with SharePoint spaces, a new addition to its collaboration platform that lets you quickly build and view Mixed Reality experiences. It&#39;s a lot like how PowerPoint made it easy for anyone to create business presentations. Sharepoint spaces features templates for things like a gallery of 3D models or 360-degree videos, all of which are viewable in Mixed Reality headsets (or any browser that supports WebVR). While they&#39;re certainly not complex virtual environments, they&#39;re still immersive enough to be used for employee training, or as a quick virtual catalog for your customers.
"Until now, it has been prohibitively complex and costly to develop customized MR apps to address these and other business scenarios," wrote Jeff Teper, Microsoft&#39;s corporate VP for OneDrive, SharePoint and Office, in a blog post today. "SharePoint spaces empower creators to build immersive experiences with point-and-click simplicity."
In a brief demonstration at Microsoft&#39;s Build conference this month, SharePoint spaces seemed just as easy to use as PowerPoint. You start with a blank project, choose a template for the type of VR experience you&#39;d like to make, and then drop in any relevant files. There&#39;s plenty of customization, too, since you can change the background imagery, lighting and sounds. Within a few minutes, I created a rotating gallery of 3D objects to explore, as well as a page featuring 360-degree videos. Sure, the experience was a bit basic, but it was still impressive since I didn&#39;t need a lick of 3D editing knowledge to build it.
Sharepoint spaces is clearly just a first step for Microsoft when it comes to creating Mixed Reality, but it could be a way for businesses to stand out as VR headsets become mainstream. Your creations aren&#39;t just limited to a small market, since you can view them in web browsers too. Much like Paint 3D, Microsoft&#39;s first stab at making 3D creation mainstream, Sharepoint spaces is a glimpse at where we&#39;re headed.
Minecraft’s Latest Update Adds VR Swimming On Rift, Gear And Windowshttp://realvrtv.com/blog/116-Minecraft-s-Latest-Update-Adds-VR-Swimming-On-Rift-Gear-And-Windows.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTMinecraft may sadly be missing from the list of apps on Oculus’ new Go headset, but the game is still going strong on Rift, Gear and Windows VR headsets with a fresh update this month.
Late last week developer Mojang launched the Aquatic Update for the smash hit game across both traditional platforms and supported VR headsets. This first of a two-part update adds a major new feature to the game: swimming. We’ve always been able to jump into water and dig around, but with the Aquatic update players will find entire oceans to explore across nine biomes (frozen, deep frozen, cold, deep cold, lukewarm, deep lukewarm, normal, deep normal, warm). Water itself has been redesigned to be clearer so you can actually see where you’re going.
It’s hard to believe that Minecraft has been around this long without introducing oceans but the sheer size of this update makes it seem like it’s been worth the wait. Players will be able to hunt for treasure chests in shipwrecks, wield a trident and unlock eight new achievements. On land, meanwhile, you’ll be able to climb into icebergs and you can also swim with dolphins to get a speed boost.
The second part of this update will be coming soon, according to Mojang, and will add a handful of new features that weren’t squeezed into this release.
It’s great to see Minecraft still getting VR updates, even if we have no idea how many people are actually playing it with a headset. The VR version offers the complete experience with cross-play so that you can join friends on Xbox One and more. Now, if we could just get that Oculus Go port sorted out.
Google VR/AR Boss Confirms Commitment: ‘We’re Making Investments For The Long Term’http://realvrtv.com/blog/115-Google-VR-AR-Boss-Confirms-Commitment-We-re-Making-Investments-For-The-Long-Term.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTThe Mirage Solo standalone headset powered by Google’s WorldSense tracking technology launched just days before the Google I/O developer conference, and yet a long keynote event came and went without mention of VR.
The $400 VR headset from Lenovo is the “first” Daydream standalone, but despite Google using that word to describe Mirage Solo no manufacturers have publicly committed to building a second one. The hardware is a big step up technicallycompared with Oculus Go, and it can run the entire Google Play catalog, but Lenovo’s Mirage Solo is unlikely to convince the masses that VR is a must buy. With no new information about either internal products like Daydream View or partner products like Mirage Solo — it makes sense that some developers and early adopters might be wondering if Google is still committed to VR.
“We haven’t confirmed anything else in the making,” said Google’s head of VR and AR, Clay Bavor, in an interview at Google I/O. “I am an emphatic believer in the long term promise of VR, AR and all things as I call them ‘Immersive Computing.’ It is very clearly to me and to us more broadly at Google part of the next phase of computing — computing that makes use of our environment, that vastly increases the richness of input and output — that’s going to be important. That’s going to be a big deal. And we’re making investments for the long term.”
Over the last decade Google has partnered with other companies to enable a variety of initiatives centered around its Android operating system. In recent years, though, Google started to launch its own products while bringing more work in house. For example, the tech giant recently acquired teams from HTC that worked on its Pixel phone. Was VR overlooked at I/O because Google is shifting focus to developing VR and AR products internally?
“We think VR and AR are going to be a big space,” Bavor said. “There’s room and there are roles for both Google devices and also for working with partners.”
“Play, don’t show”: How VR storytelling compares to movieshttp://realvrtv.com/blog/114-Play-don-t-show-How-VR-storytelling-compares-to-movies.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTAfter working on triple-A blockbuster games, virtual reality experiences, blockbuster VFX films, digital TV, and feature animation, I wanted to share what I’ve learnt along the way. In particular three elements I think great stories all have and tools to use in your stories. With that though, people often say games, movies, animation, TV, and VR are opposing mediums. I’d argue they’re all same — bar the audience’s participation with each medium. Here’s how they’re similar, and how they’re different.
My journey
My perspective started in Sydney, Australia, where I joined the animation teams for Zack Snyder’s Legend of the Guardians: Owls of Gahoole and George Miller’s Happy Feet 2. On both feature animations, the story was paramount, driving entire departments and productions of hundreds of talented artists and technical directors. Shots were prevized, reviewed, updated, and tweaked endlessly to capture the storytelling beats. After learning this in Sydney, I moved to London, England and joined Prometheus, World War Z briefly, and Gravity’s VFX teams, and all of these films had a huge attention to detail and once again focus on storytelling.
After London, I moved to Helsinki, Finland, where story in my particular became even more critical as I joined Quantum Break, eventually rising to senior narrative designer, and now leading my latest project Downward Spiral: Horus Station, a VR optional zero-gravity thriller. All projects had their ups and downs, but the goal has always been the same: to tell a great story and make the constraints of the medium the advantages. Whether a project is a huge blockbuster or a smaller scope production, there’s always a budget and timeline which provides focus and a deadline to tell that story within.
The challenges of VR
A key challenge from going from a third-person triple-A story to a VR story is the fact that in VR the player is in the world, not a character in the world. In games, particularly third person games, you push the player through the world whether it’s Jack Joyce, Lara Croft or Nathan Drake. In VR, the character is the player, not a fictional construct that they control. Players are teleported into the world and bring themselves into the world.
In my experience, designing for VR feels more like designing a ride a theme park or immersive theater where the participant is anonymous than designing a traditional triple-A game. As a storyteller, knowing this is critical to ensure players feel connected, immersed, and hooked into the game. It’s a very different trend from traditional triple-A games, however I feel it’s a critical lesson and learning for great design and storytelling.
Connecting to this if in animation/film it’s “show don’t tell,” in games/VR it’s “play, don’t show.” During my stint on Quantum Break I learnt how important the story is to making a great and memorable experience. Whether it’s in the game or created by the game. Graphics fade, gameplay becomes outdated but the story, emergence, music, and atmosphere stay forever. It lasts forever because they all make you feel something and allow to connect with the experience whereas graphics and gameplay are more like fashion which evolve. A feeling is a feeling and it’s something you remember.
Whenever I helped plan any moment, it was always a question of: can the player play this? My earliest role at QB was helping to design the entire opening level at Riverport University. It could have been a cinematic cut scene, however I truly feel the game is better from having the player discover the space and world before the action gameplay begins. From my experience the best stories are experienced, and worlds are immaculately created and allowed to be explored.
Designing Horus Station
On top of this, I’ve also learned that the best stories are discovered, not told. At 3rd Eye Studios, we’re pushing this to the extreme, which means no cinematics, no audio diaries, no NPC telling players what to do. We’re a very small core team of five developers, but we have a great story we want to tell. For this project I’ve written a screenplay, which guides the level and production design, but it will never serve another purpose. We all felt the stories are not known for exposition, they’re known for interpretation. So once again story has driven this project and I feel it once again connects with connection and interpretation means an emotional response and challenge, not a passive listen.
Finally, the last lesson I’d like to share is what I feel are three things I feel every great story has. A world, a message and a question. Every story I tell ahead I hope will have all of these elements. My favorite literature, art, music, poems, games, and VR all have these components. If a story doesn’t leave you thinking, create or show an amazing world or have a strong message it could be stronger. It’s something that I feel is independent of medium and important for any great story.
So in the end whether you’re working on the next triple-A blockbuster, movie, TV show, or a VR story experience, my advice is tell a great story. To do that look at your constraints, make them advantages and present the audience a great world, a message, and, of course, a question. Simple, right?
Gregory Louden is an Australian writer/director, game designer and Academy Award winning VFX and feature animation technical director based in Helsinki, Finland.
HTC leads $10 billion consortium to invest in virtual realityhttp://realvrtv.com/blog/113-HTC-leads-10-billion-consortium-to-invest-in-virtual-reality.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTBy Ian Sherr
The phone maker, whose Vive VR headset was released earlier this year, helps to form an investment consortium aimed at supporting "true innovation" in VR.
HTC is putting its VR money where its mouth is. - Josh Miller/CNET
HTC is ponying up real-world money to support investment in virtual reality.
The Taiwanese phone maker said Thursday it has helped form the Virtual Reality Venture Capital Alliance, a consortium of 28 venture capital firms to invest in VR technology. The fund is made up of many well-known VC&#39;s, including early Apple and Google backer Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners and 500 Startups.
"This is the first time such renowned VCs are joining hands at this scale to drive the future of a new industry, rather than competing to find the best deals for themselves," said Alvin Graylin, HTC&#39;s regional head in China, in a statement.
This isn&#39;t HTC&#39;s first attempt to become a key financial backer in the nascent VR industry. The company partnered with popular game maker Valve to create the Vive headset, VR goggles and sensors that hit store shelves in April. Around that time, the company also pledged $100 million to help fund VR content.
Other companies have been less vocal about their financial bets. Facebook purchased Oculus VR in 2014 for $2 billion, but hasn&#39;t since said how much it&#39;s spending on helping kickstart the industry. Google and Sony similarly have helped to pioneer new devices, like the Cardboard, the forthcoming Daydream and the PlayStation VR, but haven&#39;t put a dollar figure on their respective efforts.
Virtual Reality Aimed At The Elderly Finds New Fanshttp://realvrtv.com/blog/112-Virtual-Reality-Aimed-At-The-Elderly-Finds-New-Fans.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTBy Kara Platoni
(above: Virginia Anderlini (right) was the first private client to try out Dr. Sonya Kim&#39;s new virtual reality program for the elderly, and says she&#39;s eager to see more. Kim&#39;s handful of programs are still at the demo stage. Kara Platoni/KQED hide caption
toggle caption Kara Platoni/KQED )
Virginia Anderlini is 103 years old, and she is about to take her sixth trip into virtual reality.
In real life, she is sitting on the sofa in the bay window of her San Francisco assisted-living facility. Next to her, Dr. Sonya Kim gently tugs the straps that anchor the headset over Anderlini&#39;s eyes.
But in the virtual world, Anderlini is on a Hawaiian beach, and it&#39;s sunset, and she is surrounded by a glistening sea and a molten, purple-red sky. If she looks up, she sees the fronds of an enormous palm tree, and falling rainbow specks that dance in the air like the light from a disco ball.
"Hello, it&#39;s so nice to see you again," comes Kim&#39;s pre-recorded voice from inside the headset. "It&#39;s such a beautiful day today, isn&#39;t it?"
"Oh my goodness!" says Anderlini, sounding delighted. She turns her head slowly from side to side, taking in the details of the virtual landscape: little grass shacks, twists of driftwood, outcroppings of volcanic rock. "Hey, that&#39;s really pretty!"
i
Aloha VR combines images of beaches with music, brief text and an audio introduction and welcome from the physician who helped create the program. Courtesy of One Caring Team hide caption
toggle caption Courtesy of One Caring Team
Aloha VR combines images of beaches with music, brief text and an audio introduction and welcome from the physician who helped create the program.
Courtesy of One Caring Team
"In the back, look at this," she continues, wriggling around to see the imaginary world behind her. "Terry, you&#39;ve got to see this, too!" she calls to her son, who is watching nearby.
For a virtual reality entrepreneur, Kim has an unusual target audience: the elderly. Anderlini is the first private client for Kim&#39;s Aloha VR program, which Kim envisions as a way to help people relax, an alternative to endlessly watching TV and a change of scenery for those who can&#39;t get out much.
And for those unhappy in the present day, virtual reality might provide an escape into an immersive other world that "allows them to forget their chronic pain, anxiety, the fact that they are alone," Kim says. In VR, she says, her company has found "a new care modality to bring to a senior care setting like this, to inspire them to live another day, where they&#39;re happy."
&#39;No One Cares About Me&#39;
A former emergency room doctor, Kim found her way to virtual reality through a series of tough requests. A few years ago, she was running a house-call practice when she received a call for help from a woman whose 88-year-old mother had stopped eating and drinking. As a result, she&#39;d made three trips to the ER in a month, racking up more than $50,000 in medical bills.
Kim knew that seniors often end up in the hospital for preventable conditions — like dehydration, malnutrition and electrolyte imbalances — exacerbated by loneliness and lack of self-care. And when she asked the older woman why she&#39;d stopped eating, Kim recalls, her patient replied: " &#39;No one loves me. No one cares about me. I don&#39;t matter anymore. Why should I eat, why should I drink, why should I live? I just want to die today.&#39; "
"When I was driving back home from that visit, I couldn&#39;t stop sobbing," Kim says. "As a single woman without any kids, I thought, when I&#39;m her age, who&#39;s going to call me? Who&#39;s going to take care of me?"
That interaction led Kim to found One Caring Team, in 2014. Staffers regularly phone seniors at home to check on their mood, medications and appointments, and prompt them to chat about positive subjects, like what makes them happy or what they could do bring joy to someone else.
But then one day, as Kim was giving a talk about her service, a man in the audience asked: "What about my mom?" His mother has dementia, he said, and couldn&#39;t have a coherent phone conversation. Finding a solution for his mom, Kim says, became her "new homework assignment."
By chance, Kim had been reading about virtual reality and decided to attend a VR mixer in San Francisco; someone let her use an Oculus headset to walk through a virtual garden, and she "totally fell in love" with the medium. Convinced the older patients would like it, too, she borrowed a friend&#39;s headset and took it to a preventive care conference. By the time she was done, she already had directors of assisted-living facilities asking about pricing.
That convinced her that the concept could sell, but she wanted to make sure VR could actually make people feel better.
Easing Chronic Pain, Anxiety and Depression
"There are over 100 clinical research papers that are already published that show proven positive clinical outcomes using VR in managing chronic pain, anxiety and depression," she says. "And in dementia patients, all those three elements are very common."
i
These images from an fMRI scan show areas of the brain affected by pain, and how those activated areas quieted down for one test patient who donned a headset that immersed the patient in a virtual reality world. Courtesy of Dr. Sam Sharar/University of Washington hide caption
toggle caption Courtesy of Dr. Sam Sharar/University of Washington
For example, in the 1990s, pioneering researchers at the University of Washington developed SnowWorld, an icy virtual environment that reduced pain for burn victims during wound treatment. More recently, Dr. Albert Rizzo&#39;s lab at the University of Southern California has helped military veterans who have post-traumatic stress disorder, by offering exposure therapy in virtual environments. The Veterans United Foundation has created virtual reality experiences of veterans&#39; memorials, for vets who can&#39;t travel to see them. And scientists at the Chronic Pain Research Institute have tested a virtual meditative walk meant to help users manage pain and stress.
VR is typically formulated for younger users, and often asks them to play games, solve puzzles, master new information and move around energetically. But many of Kim&#39;s clients are wheelchair-bound; those with advanced dementia cannot read or follow verbal commands. Nearly all of them are unfamiliar with the conventions of virtual reality devices, which assume that the user knows to swivel his or her head to take in the 360-degree view, to move around to make the landscape scroll, or to tap objects to interact with them. Instead, many of Kim&#39;s clients go through entire sessions seated, heads cast down, hands folded in their laps. Sometimes her staff has to gently pivot clients&#39; chins to help them look to the side.
But exploration and beating puzzles aren&#39;t the point of this kind of VR: The environments have no story-line, just scenery. Kim says the name Aloha VR is a nod to her experiences working in a Hawaiian emergency room, where she came to admire the state&#39;s "ohana spirit," a concept that encompasses love for extended family and respect for elders.
In the version of the VR program Anderlini is watching, Kim&#39;s voice offers a friendly welcome and reminds her to take her medication to stay healthy. As she speaks, the brief text pops up in little orange bubbles that burst pleasingly at the end of each sentence. Versions for the cognitively impaired have no words at all; just music and the sounds of waves.
"If there are too many words, if there are too many things we&#39;re asking, they&#39;re going to get frustrated," said Kim.
Instead, the point is to make users feel safe and welcome. "Dementia patients often feel lost, because they feel that they don&#39;t belong anywhere," says Kim — they may be confused about their surroundings or who they are, or estranged from family members overwhelmed by their care. By giving them a beautiful beach, Kim said, "I want them to feel found again."
In addition to having private clients, Kim conducts group therapy sessions at Bay Area assisted-living centers, where a dozen or so people take turns with the goggles. Although some of her clients struggle with verbal communication, they seem to have found other ways to express enjoyment. One client, Kim said, simply blew kisses. Another hummed happily. A third stole 40 minutes in the headset, repeatedly asking for "Just a little more, hon." A few just go to sleep.
The Challenge: Heavy And Expensive Headsets
There are still challenges for the company to work out. The headsets can be heavy; it can take seniors a while to warm up to trying them. And while prices for mobile VR equipment have come down, it still costs about $850 for each Samsung Gear VR headset plus the Galaxy smartphone that slides into it – costly enough that the firm doesn&#39;t have a rig for each client.
Kim&#39;s company has created a handful of virtual environments for demonstration purposes, but it will take time and money to build more. So, for now, they also buy off-the-shelf programs to give the clients a little variety. (They recently teamed with the Virtual World Society, a group that intends to use VR to promote social good. The group&#39;s founder, the University of Washington&#39;s virtual interface pioneer Dr. Tom Furness, is now One Caring Team&#39;s acting chief technology officer.)
So far, Virginia Anderlini has taken virtual visits to Venice and Africa and, after her brief trip to the beach, spent some time in an autumn-themed meditation session watching leaves fall. But she&#39;s seen it before, and soon asks for something different. What virtual world would she like to try next? "Just something I haven&#39;t seen before," she says.
But that could be tougher than it sounds.
"You know, when you get to this age, I think you&#39;ve seen everything," Anderlini says, and laughs.
This story was produced by KQED&#39;s health and technology blog, Future of You.
Take the virtual reality leap with a high-quality $19 VR Box Headsethttp://realvrtv.com/blog/111-Take-the-virtual-reality-leap-with-a-high-quality-19-VR-Box-Headset.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTBy TNW Deals
Virtual reality is finally taking off, and modern technology is allowing users to skip the ultra-expensive visual contraptions in favor of a simple mechanism to utilize the screen on your smartphone!
The Virtual Reality Box Headset builds on Google’s ‘Cardboard’ technology to deliver a headset made from high quality ABS plastic, and 42mm spherical resin lenses to bring you gorgeous 3D effects. For a limited time, it’s just $18.99 on TNW Deals.
Simply insert your phone into the sliding tray, with compatible models running up to and including iPhone 6 Plus and Samsung Galaxy Note series.
The one-size-fits-all design allows you to adjust lens distance and focus for an optimal fit, even while wearing your glasses (if you have them). The app will render a set of stereoscopic images that your eyes will then interpret as a single three-dimensional image.
There is already a wide range of apps in both the iOS App Store and Google Play Store that give you a deep-dive experience in the world of VR. With the sleek and stylish Stormtrooper design on your Virtual Reality Box Headset, you’ll be able to take advantage of it all with an optimal visual experience.
Play VR games in an entirely new setting, watch movies in a virtual cinema, or explore dedicated VR demo apps with the wide range of accessibility.
Your Virtual Reality Box Headset ships internationally, and is offered at an impressive 36 percent off for a limited time!
The real cost of virtual realityhttp://realvrtv.com/blog/110-The-real-cost-of-virtual-reality.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PST
by Dan Ackerman
Jumping into the new and exciting world of virtual reality has more dangers than just suffering from motion sickness or bumping your knee on the coffee table while wearing a giant set of goggles. Sticker shock is a very real side effect of the devices leading this first generation of virtual experiences.
Imagine this nightmare scenario: After paying $599 for an Oculus Rift or $799 for an HTC Vive (already a serious investment), you connect it to a computer -- maybe one that you purchased last year or even last month. (The Vive runs £689 in the UK and around AU$1,340 including shipping to Australia.) But that new Rift or Vive takes one look at your computer and laughs. Why? They&#39;re just not compatible. And if you&#39;ve got a Mac, forget it.
The solution is to invest in a new high-end desktop computer that meets the rigid specs demanded by virtual reality gear, but that&#39;s not going to be cheap.
Just the specs, ma&#39;am
The first thing to remember about VR is that the new headsets require a desktop computer. That&#39;s right, I said desktop. With a small handful of expensive exceptions, even a brand-new gaming laptop doesn&#39;t have graphics hardware powerful enough to run a VR headset.
The minimum computer requirements to use both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive are an Intel Core i5-4590 or better processor, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970/AMD R9 290 graphics card or better. The former requirement is mainstream enough, but the latter is where things can get expensive.
How much are we talking? Well, the least you can expect to pay for a premade VR-ready desktop PC is about $999, but that gets you only the bare minimum specs you need. So think of that $999 as the starting line, not the finish.
"Anytime anybody says minimum," says Kelt Reeves, president of gaming PC builder Falcon Northwest, "just be aware of what you&#39;re getting." This may mean a system that can probably play all the Oculus and Vive games and apps today but may not be ready for the more ambitious games of tomorrow.
"Usually these PCs are the center of someone&#39;s universe," says Reeves. "To give you an example, we start at about $2,000 and go on up from there. That&#39;s the ballpark that we play in."
Kevin Wasielewski, co-founder and CEO of Origin PC, another high-end gaming computer company, is more pointed. "You don&#39;t want to buy a high-end headset and then get something cheap to power it," he says. "It&#39;s like: &#39;Let me buy this super-nice Porsche, but let me get the slowest possible engine.&#39; I look nice in my Porsche, but I&#39;m driving 20 miles an hour."
Tuned for VR
Of course, those in the business of selling really expensive gaming PCs are naturally going to insist you need a really expensive gaming PC. But even more mainstream PC makers acknowledge that going with the absolute minimum required specs for VR undersells what you&#39;ll need to fully enjoy the VR experience.
Think of it like this: VR headsets are essentially a pair of tiny computer monitors strapped to your face, and each of those screens needs to display 90 frames of animation per second in order to look and feel right. (By comparison, a television program is only 30 frames per second.)
Mike Nash, vice president of customer experience and portfolio strategy at HP, agrees that the $999 VR computer won&#39;t fly. "If you don&#39;t get the performance right, you can actually get kind of nauseous because you&#39;re getting an experience that is not fluid," he says. "The whole thing about virtual reality is, your eyes and the device are playing a trick on your brain. If you don&#39;t execute that trick pretty flawlessly, it can make you a little bit motion-sick."
Naturally, Nash thinks the solution is a computer designed especially for the needs of virtual reality, such as HP&#39;s Phoenix (since renamed as the HP Omen desktop), a $1,199-and-up gaming desktop built and tuned with the HTC Vive headset in mind. "You want to spend minimal time tinkering and maximum time enjoying virtual reality," he says. "By having a device that is pretested, pretuned, preconfigured for virtual reality, the theory is the customer spends less time tinkering, and all their time experiencing."
Is pretuning a computer to have all the right drivers and settings already baked in for a specific virtual reality headset more important than splurging on the most powerful processor and graphics card you can afford? Nash says it&#39;s a balancing act. "I once knew this personal trainer who would ask this trick question: What&#39;s more important, flexibility, cardio capacity or strength? The answer is, they&#39;re all important. What&#39;s more important, having the right drivers, having the right chassis, having the right parts? The answer is they&#39;re all important because they all deliver the experience."
Bundles of joy
Don&#39;t despair that virtual reality is forever out of reach of real reality budgets. Oculus links to officially endorsed $999 desktops from Asus and Dell on its website and even gives Rift purchasers a discount on bundled hardware, with an average of $200 off a Rift-plus-computer combo.
Zvi Greenstein, general manager of GeForce and VR at Nvidia, gives a qualified endorsement of the lower-end computers that hit the minimum required specs. He says that Nvidia&#39;s GeForce GTX 970 graphics card (about $325 on its own, or available in computers priced from $999 to $1,299) "will support a great VR experience. It will ensure 90 frames per second consistently, with low latency. That&#39;s the card that we recommend for the minimum basic VR experience."
Coolpad VR 1x Virtual Reality Headset Launched at Rs. 999 http://realvrtv.com/blog/109-Coolpad-VR-1x-Virtual-Reality-Headset-Launched-at-Rs-999.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTBy Abhinav Lal
Coolpad has launched a virtual reality headset for smartphones in India. Available from Friday via Amazon India, the Coolpad VR 1x has been priced at Rs. 999.
While the company says the headset is meant for Coolpad devices, it adds the headset will work with any smartphone with screen sizes between 4.7 and 5.7 inches with am HD resolution. For it to work properly, the smartphone must also be equipped with a gyroscope. Coolpad devices the headset is officially compatible with include the Note 3, Note 3 Lite, Note 3 Plus, and Max.
The Chinese company says its VR headset comes with &#39;customisable lenses&#39; that adjust focal length, something it says makes it comfortable to use for long durations.
Syed Tajuddin, CEO, Coolpad India said, "With visual reality being the new fun gadget for the Y generation and fast catching up with youth, we are eager to enter this space and offer the &#39;Cool VR&#39; to our fans. This launch is in line with our strategy to bring Coolpad&#39;s accessories to the Indian market and we will be soon unveiling other products in this growing segment such as Power Bank and Smart Watch by 2016."
He further added, "According to a recent report, the global VR market is expected to touch an estimated $120 billion by 2020 and India, with its huge smartphone base, is set to become the largest VR market. The timing is perfect for the launch of wearable products in India and with our superior technology offering, we are confident in generating favorable response in this segment as well like we did in the smartphones segment."
Other smartphone manufacturers that have rolled out VR headsets in India include Intex, OnePlus, and Lenovo.
Download the Gadgets 360 app for Android and iOS to stay up to date with the latest tech news, product reviews, and exclusive deals on the popular mobiles.
Sacramento Kings to experiment with Virtual Reality in new arenahttp://realvrtv.com/blog/108-Sacramento-Kings-to-experiment-with-Virtual-Reality-in-new-arena.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTby Matt Barker
In Oct. 2016, the Sacramento Kings will unveil their brand-new, $507 million stadium. Along with an impressive array of 84-foot video screens, the Kings plan to integrate a high-capacity Wi-Fi system into the stadium, making it easier than ever for fans to share their experiences via social media.
However, faster sharing via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter will not be the only benefits. The Kings hope enable instant access to virtual reality replays for fans within the stadium. While the specifics are uncertain, it is thought that mobile VR viewers or headsets will be tested soon after the stadium is operational. In the meantime, the stadium’s construction progress can be viewed live here.
The idea is to narrow the discrepancy between courtside seats and nosebleeds, giving all spectators a better viewing experience.
It may even offer future opportunities to view full matches in movie theatre-like environments within the stadium, a prospect which Paul Jacobs, vice chairman and co-owner of the team, believes may prove extremely popular. “They’d still be there to feel the roar of the crowd and be part of it but be watching in a slightly different way,” he told MIT Technology Review.
Indeed, the Kings may be carving out a market with serious potential for fans who are either priced-out of buying tickets or simply can’t make the game. Galen Clavio, director of the National Sports Journalism Center at Indiana University, believes so. “There’s only a finite number of courtside seats,” he told MIT. “If you can export 80% of that experience to people sitting in their homes, that could be a real market that doesn’t exist today.”
Courtside seats will undoubtedly remain the optimum viewing standard for the NBA. However, where poorer seats are concerned, the expansion of virtual reality technology through innovators like the Kings may prove to be a vital tool in recreating what makes courtside seats so great—perhaps just without the sweat.
How Virtual Reality Headsets Workhttp://realvrtv.com/blog/107-How-Virtual-Reality-Headsets-Work.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTFrom Techvibes NewsDesk
Virtual reality is the act of tricking your brain and visual senses into believing that you are immersed in another space. This requires the perception, not the reality, that as we look around, or move our heads up, down, or from side to side, that the new world we are in appears as it should.
The surprising truth is that while our brains are good at detecting significant issues, we don’t require perfection in order to be visually satisfied that we are in a different world. From a technical standpoint, this is a huge part of why virtual reality is feasible in 2016, as true 360-degree viewing is much more difficult than the solutions major players have come up with.
Let’s break this down.
Hardware Basics
Today’s virtual reality headsets come in two main flavors: external computing, like the Oculus Rift: (pictured above)
…and internal computing, like Google Cardboard:
The key difference is where the graphics calculations are being performed relative to the screen(s). In the instance of the Rift, the rendering is performed on an external PC, connected to the headset by an HDMI cord, and in the instance of a system like Google Cardboard, the screen and computer are actually the same device (your phone).
In addition to the screen, both types include lenses, which are basically high powered glasses which allow you to clearly view a screen which is extremely close to your eyes—approximately two to three inches away. If you’re curious enough to prove to yourself that these are necessary, try holding a detailed image that close to your face and see how clearly you can make out various features. Even though the images in virtual reality appear to be far away, at times, the screen is a constant distance from your eyes.
Now that we’ve gone over the basics of the hardware, let’s talk about the remaining technology that is required to complete the experience, and compensate for our brain’s natural mistrust of what it is perceiving.
Each of our eyes requires a different image
If you’ve ever taken a right-eye/left-eye dominance test, you’ll understand this right away. If you haven’t, quickly put your index finger about 5 inches in front of your face, and then close each eye one at a time. Did you notice that what you see changes? One of your eyes will perceive something quite similar to what you see when both eyes are open—this is called your dominant eye—and the other will be significantly different. What this means for a virtual reality headset is that we need to project two different images, one per eye, and then let the brain combine them in order to create the perception of a 3D environment.
There is one additional wrinkle, however, as the farther away our focal point (what we’re specifically looking at), the less of a difference there is between what each eye sees. To prove this to yourself again, look at something farther away, and repeat the one eye at a time experiment, and note the subtle difference this time. The rendering engines in virtual reality systems perform all of these calculations in real-time and then send the correct images to each eye.
Head tracking technology
The next aspect of virtual reality is taking into account the position of our head, which is one key component of what our eyes will perceive in a scene. A virtual reality headset needs to adjust as our head moves, or the scene in front of us would “feel” like it is following us as we move.
To counter this, if we turn our head 45 degrees to the left, the scene needs to “move” 45 degrees to the right in our field of view. Because the screen itself is strapped to our head, this is done by the computer which is rendering the scene. The same goes for moving our head up and down. The way this is accomplished is through similar technology to the iPhone’s gyroscope, which allows for physical device movement tracking.
3D sound
While not technically a part of the visual technology in virtual reality, sound plays a key role in creating a believable environment. Think about the difference between a 3d audio-visual system for watching movies, where a battle scene can have an explosion occur behind you, the viewer, versus all of the sound being mapped to a stereo sound system coming from your TV. It makes a big difference while watching a movie, and an even bigger difference while fully immersed in virtual reality.
The potential, however, is enormous, as these systems can now track not only your relative position to an audio source (like an explosion), but also the physical orientation of your head and ears relative to that sound. If you spin around suddenly, you are now facing the explosion, and will perceive it to be directly in front of you, as opposed to behind you. Spinning around on your couch during a movie wouldn’t do much.
Eye tracking
A relatively untapped source of innovation in virtual reality is eye tracking, which is different from head tracking in that our eyes can independently look around a scene, or more critically, focus on a particular depth of field within a scene. Currently, VR headsets render everything crisply and clearly, but human vision is relatively blurry at every depth other than the depth of the object that you are currently looking at. On the whole, this does not appear to dramatically reduce our brain’s willingness to believe what it is seeing, but it definitely is a source for even greater reality.
So that’s that! Next time you’re playing a virtual reality enabled game, you’ll be the expert in the room.
Is Branded Virtual Reality Content the Next Frontier in Marketing?http://realvrtv.com/blog/106-Is-Branded-Virtual-Reality-Content-the-Next-Frontier-in-Marketing.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTBy Jack Marshall
(above:Visitors test a VR headset at the Cannes Lions advertising festival in Cannes, France. Photo: Reuters )
Two of the shiniest objects in marketing in 2016 are branded content and virtual reality, so it’s no surprise that the two collided during the Cannes Lions advertising festival in France this week.
VR was a popular talking point among ad agency executives, tech companies such as Samsung were demonstrating their latest hardware, and online services such as YouTube were showcasing the content now available on their platforms.
Publishers and media companies also were joining in, pitching marketers on the idea of branded virtual reality content, which they hope to produce and distribute on behalf of paying brands in the latest frontier for marketing.
Salespeople and VR experts from Gannett’s USA Today Network, for example, spent time this week demonstrating a sizzle reel for its upcoming weekly VR show called “VRtually There,” as well as branded VR content it’s already produced for companies such as Honda.
It also demonstrated a new VR ad unit it created, which it’s calling a “cubemercial,” that effectively places the viewer inside a virtual-reality room. Brands will be given the opportunity to showcase videos or products on each of the cube’s six sides, said Gannett’s chief revenue officer, Kevin Gentzel.
“We’ve been showing this to industry leaders throughout the week and we’ve been seeing a great reception,” Mr. Gentzel said, although no brands have yet committed to a trial with the unit.
The company said it recently signed a deal with a new client to create three new pieces of branded VR content, due to be published across its network of sites and properties later this summer.
Meanwhile, AOL’s recently acquired VR production company RYOT was also in Cannes touting its own content creation capabilities.
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said RYOT had taken meetings with multiple marketers and agencies over the course of the festival and expects to sign deals as a result.
Elsewhere, publishers were picking up accolades for their VR efforts at the Cannes Lions awards ceremonies. T Brand Studio, the brand marketing unit of the New York Times, NYT -1.51 % won a Mobile Grand Prix prize on Wednesday for the newspaper’s virtual reality app, NYT VR.
Since launching in November, NYT VR has been downloaded 600,000 times, the company said, and has featured branded films for both GE and Mini.
Latest hyperloop news; augmented reality windows, new Silk Roadhttp://realvrtv.com/blog/105-Latest-hyperloop-news-augmented-reality-windows-new-Silk-Road.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTBy Sebastian Blanco
It&#39;s not enough that there are two competing companies working to turn the low-pressure, high-speed Hyperloop idea to reality. When news from each of them comes our at roughly the same time, it&#39;s easy enough to lump them together. So, well, guilty as charged.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (not Hyperloop One) has published a new video showing how it might give hyperloop riders a glimpse "outside" the pod using giant screens that look like windows. The screens will use face-tracking technology to make sure that it appears like you&#39;re really looking out a glass window. HTT CEO Dirk Albhon talked about the windows at SxSW Interactive in March, where he said, "These screens use head tracking to see where you&#39;re looking and, based on your position, we are actually manipulating the image so that you have the same feeling as looking out the window. And we are working on ways that multiple people can be looking out the same window." Speaking of looking out, the company also has some renderings of what the inside of the pods might look like (see gallery below). HTT&#39;s hyperloop might be like airplane, just smaller.
Meanwhile, Hyperloop One (not Hyperloop Transportation Technologies) has made a deal in Russia to potentially build a hyperloop track near Moscow. The plans also include the big industrial conglomerate Summa Group – which already owns oil pipelines and ports – but the overall Russia idea is much bigger. Hyperloop One co-founder Shervin Pishevar said that the real future is to use the Hyperloop as a new Silk Road for shipping that could move freight containers from Asia to Europe in 24 hours.
Facebook now lets you 'Like' 360-degree videos in virtual realityhttp://realvrtv.com/blog/104-Facebook-now-lets-you-Like-360-degree-videos-in-virtual-reality.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PST
By Nick Statt
Today, Facebook-owned Oculus announced the launch of 360-degree video reactions for the Gear VR headset. So now, when watching Facebook videos using Samsung&#39;s virtual reality goggles, you&#39;ll be able to choose between the social network&#39;s standard series of reactions, including the like or one of the five new emoji reactions. When viewing 360-degree videos, you&#39;ll also be able to see others&#39; reactions float by on the screen as well.
The company originally touted the feature back in March when it first began letting Gear VR users sign into their Facebook accounts on the VR headset to get a personalized feed of stories. Oculus says the new emoji reactions should be available for 360-degree photos, which the company began supporting earlier this month, in the coming weeks as well.
FACEBOOK IS EXPLORING HOW TO MAKE VR MORE SOCIAL
Video reactions are just the latest in a continued effort to bring social features to VR. We&#39;re still a ways off from a full-blown Facebook VR app that could reasonably resemble the Metaverse. But Facebook and its Oculus subsidiary have started bringing some of the hallmark features of the world&#39;s most popular social network to the realm of VR. Back in February, Facebook announced the formation of a social VR team dedicated to researching "how people can connect and share using today&#39;s VR technology," though its early focus appears to center on social game design.
Virtual reality goes mainstream in 2016http://realvrtv.com/blog/103-Virtual-reality-goes-mainstream-in-2016.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTBy Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick
With the recent release of the Oculus ‘Rift’ and HTC ‘Vive’ headsets, and the Playstation ‘VR’ to launch by the end of this year, virtual reality is set to dominate headlines in the technology sector in 2016.
Virtual reality (VR) is an artificial environment that is created with software and presented to the user in such a way that the user suspends belief and accepts it as a real environment. On a computer, VR is primarily experienced through two of the five senses; sight and sound.
Most up-to-date VRs are displayed either on a computer screen or with special headsets that include stereoscopic displays. Some simulations include additional sensory information and focus on real sound through speakers or headphones targeted towards VR users. Some advanced systems now include tactile information, generally known as force feedback in medical, gaming and military applications.
VR also covers remote communication environments, providing the virtual presence with concepts of telepresence and telexistence. Virtual artefacts can be created, either through use of standard input devices, such as a keyboard and mouse, or multi-modal devices, such as a wired glove or omni-directional treadmills. The simulated environment can be similar to the real world in order to create a lifelike experience, for example, in simulations for pilot or combat training. In contrast, the environment can also differ significantly from reality, such as in VR games.
Current VR devices
The Samsung ‘Gear VR’ was the first consumergrade product to hit the market, apart from Google’s hobby kit, Google ‘Cardboard’. Like ‘Cardboard’, the ‘Gear VR’ uses a smartphone to power the headset, but in this case, the ‘Gear VR’ is limited to newer Samsung models. Also, unlike ‘Cardboard’, some of the smart technologies, including a gyroscope and accelerometer, are built into the headset providing lower latency and a smoother overall experience.
The Oculus ‘Rift’, developed and manufactured by Oculus VR, was released on 28 March 2016, making it the first to kick-start consumer-targeted VR headsets. The ‘Rift’ is not a standalone device as it must be connected by a cable to a personal computer in order to work. The ‘Rift’ uses a dedicated screen (an OLED panel) for each eye, each having a resolution of 1080×1200 pixels. This, combined with a high refresh rate and low persistence, means that the user experiences none of the motion blurring or judder that is experienced on a regular monitor. The ‘Rift’ has six degrees of freedom, with rotational and positional tracking performed by a precise, low-latency and accurate tracking system. One reviewer who spent several days with the Oculus ‘Rift’ said that it is a seriously impressive piece of technology when compared to earlier VR devices. It’s comfortable, well built, easy to use and delivers a vastly more immersive experience than the two dimensional windows we use to peer into today’s games and applications.
The HTC ‘Vive’, developed by electronic company HTC and PC game publisher Valve Corporation, was released on 5 April 2016. This headset is designed to use ‘room scale’ technology to turn a room into a 3D space via sensors. This technology allows the user to navigate the virtual world naturally and use motion-tracked, handheld controllers to manipulate objects and experience immersive environments. The HTC ‘Vive’ received over 22 awards at the CES (Consumer Technology Association) 2016, including best of CES.
The ‘Vive’ has a refresh rate of 90 Hz and uses two screens, one per eye, each having a resolution of 1080x1200 pixels. The device uses more than 70 sensors, including a MEMS gyroscope, accelerometer and laser position sensors. It operates in a tracking space of 4.6 metres by 4.6 metres, with base stations that track movement with a precision of less than a millimetre. A front-facing camera is used as part of a safety system which allows the software to identify moving or static objects in a room and displays a feed from the camera to safely guide the user from obstacles.
What’s next for VR?
Besides developing games, VR developers are directing major investments into developing VR experiences for pre-recorded (and eventually live) entertainment and sports programming, marketing and product retailing, and education and training applications. In addition, Facebook and enterprise IT suppliers see social and peer-to-peer communications as hugely promising areas for VR. Down the track, increasingly capable 3D cameras and apps will allow users to play back and share experiences in VR.
Although 2016 may be viewed as a pivotal year for VR, it will be necessary for suppliers to manage expectations given limited available content and technical limitations of entry-level VR.
Among the three vendors, Samsung is expected to lead the market in terms of sales volume due to the price advantage of the ‘Gear VR’, while Oculus and HTC are more likely to compete neck-and-neck in the sector due to the similarity of their devices. Analysts see smartphone-based VR potentially emerging as a ‘gateway’ to upsell higher quality VR experiences to consumers, but high-end PC and console-based headsets will initially be limited to early-adopter enthusiasts and high-end gamers. This is due to the price and because most VR titles will initially be limited to games.
Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick - George Biernacki
Tripping Down a Virtual Reality Rabbit Holehttp://realvrtv.com/blog/102-Tripping-Down-a-Virtual-Reality-Rabbit-Hole.htmlWed, 31 Dec 1969 16:00:00 PSTBy Farhad Manjoo
(above:A visitor tried HTC Vive virtual reality headset at the Computex exhibition in Taipei this month. The experience can be overwhelming. Credit Tyrone Siu/Reuters)
This is going to sound like the tech-nerd version of one of those first-person People magazine essays about surviving adversity: You don’t appreciate how much you need to see your hands until you can’t.
Your hands – they’re always there. Even in the most immersive of media experiences — an IMAX movie or the hypnotic reverie of a darkened opera house — your sense of where your hands are is an ever-present comfort. Because you can see your hands, you can reach for the popcorn without knocking it over. Because your eyes aren’t locked on the screen, you can check your phone to make sure your babysitter hasn’t texted with an emergency.
But then you don virtual reality goggles, and your hands disappear. So does the rest of the world around you. You are bereft, and it is very, very unsettling.
This sounds obvious: The whole point of virtual reality is to create a fantasy divorced from the physical world. You’re escaping the dreary mortal coil for a completely simulated experience: There you are, climbing the side of a mountain, exploring a faraway museum, flying through space or getting in bed with someone way out of your league.
But in many ways, the simulation is too immersive. After spending a few weeks with two of the most powerful V.R. devices now on the market, the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. I suspect that V.R. will be used by the masses one day, but not anytime soon. I’m not sure we’re ready to fit virtual reality into our lives, no matter how excited Silicon Valley is about it.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
Getting completely submerged in a simulation is good for things like games, but for most media total immersion feels like a strangely old-fashioned experience. Because it leaves your body helplessly stuck in the physical world while your mind wanders, V.R. doesn’t fit with the way most people work at a computer, watch TV or encounter many other digital experiences.
Virtual reality is the opposite of a smartphone, a device that offers you quick hits of the digital world as you go about in the real world. Instead, V.R. is at this point an experience best left for the privacy of one’s cave — a lonely, sometimes antisocial affair that does not allow for multitasking, for distraction or for the modern world’s easy interplay of the real and the digital.
“I’m a real proponent of being careful how we use it, because immersion is not free,” said Jeremy Bailenson, the director of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, a research center for virtual reality experiences. “Immersion comes at a cost. It takes you out of your environment, it’s perceptually taxing at times, and it’s not something that we can use the way we use other media, for hours and hours and hours a day.”
Part of the problem is that the technology still isn’t good enough. People at Oculus, the V.R. start-up that Facebook purchased for $2 billion in 2014, compare their Rift headset to the Apple II personal computer — one of the earliest incarnations of a device that would change the world. Eventually.
The Apple II went on sale in 1977, but a couple of decades would pass before personal computers became ubiquitous. The earliest PCs were also very expensive (the Apple II sold for what would be about $5,000 today) and V.R. is no different. The Rift sells for $599, and the Vive goes for $799; both require a powerful desktop computer that will set you back at least $1,000.
Both companies are working to solve some of the issues I had with V.R.
A representative for Oculus told me that one of its goals was to add more parts of your body to the simulation, so that you don’t feel as if your mind and your limbs are in two different worlds. Later this year, Oculus will release a pair of touch-sensitive controllers. When you carry these into a virtual world, as I did during a recent demo at Facebook’s headquarters, you can see a representation of your hands in virtual space, and the controllers let you manipulate digital objects in a way that feels remarkably real.
In Oculus’s demo room, I threw three-point shots in basketball, repeatedly punched a guy (and took some punches) in an unruly hockey game and passed some digital toys back and forth with an Oculus employee who was also wearing a headset.
Compared with the lonelier, hands-free version of Oculus now shipping, the hands-on demo offered less of a split between what my body was doing in the real world and what my eyes were seeing in the virtual one.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
HTC’s Vive is ahead of Oculus on this score. It comes with hand-sensing controllers that allow for digital manipulation, and its headset has a handy camera that provides an in-goggles map of the room around you, letting you find your chair and your keyboard without having to fumble clumsily for them.
But even as the technology improves, V.R. is still something you have to get used to. It’s unusual, in these days of multitasking, to plunge yourself completely into a media experience. You might want to tweet and snap while you watch a presidential debate or the N.B.A. finals. And you’re probably multitasking even when you’re watching something longer and more serious, like a movie.
But V.R. doesn’t allow you to easily direct your gaze toward anything beyond the media at hand. Once you’re in it, you’re in it; even handling a snack can be challenging. In a paradoxical way, the intensity of V.R. tends to limit its integration into your daily life.
“In general we never put somebody in a helmet for more than about 20 minutes, and we give them frequent breaks,” said Mr. Bailenson, of Stanford. “Being perceptually disconnected from the world for much longer may not be something a lot of people want to do.”
V.R. also brings with it the uneasy worry that you may look like a fool when you use it. That brings me to the eggplant in the room — pornography. Like most new entertainment technologies, V.R. has been talked up as being an excellent tool for consuming adult content, but at the risk of T.M.I, I have to say I was terrified of going anywhere near such experiences.
“I don’t care who you are, there’s a fantastic chance you know the paralyzing fear that shoots up your spine when you’re watching a smidgen of erotica and you think you hear the door open, a creak from the stairway or even a random footstep,” wrote Mike Wehner, an editor at the tech-culture site Daily Dot who took the V.R. porn plunge. “That feeling is amplified to an insane degree when you can’t actually see or hear what is happening around you, and it’s not an experience that is conducive to self pleasure.”
I’ll take Mr. Wehner’s word for it.
But if V.R. isn’t useful for movies and TV shows, and if it’s kind of dodgy for porn, what good is it today? There are some great games on these systems, and there are sure to be many more during the next couple of years. There are also several useful experiences, like designing your Ikea kitchen in V.R.
But if you’re not a gamer and you’re not looking for a new kitchen, V.R. is, at this point, just too immersive for most media. A few minutes after donning my goggles, I came to regard my virtual surroundings as a kind of prison. Yes, V.R. is a prison of fantastical sights and sounds and one that is at moments irresistibly exciting, but it’s a prison nevertheless. And before long, it will leave you yearning for escape.